In celebration of a half-century of soul, Estelle is joined by the legendary Al Green on Apple Music Hits on the 50th anniversary of his essential album, 'Let's Stay Together'. The two discuss the evolution of the titular track, the distinctive 'Memphis Sound,' working with longtime producer Willie Mitchell, the legacy of the album 50 years on, and more.
Listen to the full episode today (1/31) at 12p PST on Apple Music Hits or anytime on-demand on Apple Music at apple.co/essentialalbum.
Al Green Tells Apple Music How The Title Track Came Together…
Willie Mitchell was playing the melody on the piano and I asked him what that was and he said, "I don't know." So Al Jackson came in and he was tapping on the chair, side of the building or something and Willie said, "Why don't you write something to it?" And I wrote, "I'm" ... And then, oh, man, I don't know, man. I just started writing some "I'm"s. I said, "What do you want?" He says, "So in love with you," I said, "I'm so in love with you. Yeah, that's it." I'm ...I wrote a bunch of stuff, but it didn't fit, you know? So I had to go back that night and separate what's good and what's bad, throw this away, add this in, whatever, you know? Yeah, like that. Then, that one stuck.
Al Green Tells Apple Music His Musical Influences Growing Up…
Oh, gee whiz. Sam Cook, Otis Redding, I suppose Mr. Presley, I don't know. I had a weird taste for music at the time. I just listened to whatever I could here on the radio, especially being from Michigan and they didn't play anything but what they wanted to play. So yeah. Back in the sixties, I was in high school. I grew up in church, but not in a lot of singers. I hear a lot of sanctified type music and tambourines and these heavy set ladies carrying on the service. And man, it was really nice, man. I mean, they get it going and they ain't shame, man. They get it going.
Al Green Tells Apple Music About "La-La For You”...
La-La For You, it means I love you. That's what La La For You means. It means I love you. I just, I wrote about somebody because you listen to the record, listen to the lyrics, you'll see that it is really about somebody. You can't be saying all this stuff just out of the blue. So it is about somebody. It is about a girlfriend, but I didn't use that part of it in the record, I just, La La For You. And you probably, if these things fit, you probably know who I'm talking about.
Al Green Tells Apple Music About The “Memphis Sound”, Swapping Hits With Issac Hayes…
Oh, the Memphis sound had to be about two silly guys. One is Al Green and the other one is Isaac Hayes trying to outsing one another and we were on the same label. When we found that out, we hugged one another, in Washington, we hugged one another, slapped hands and then one another said, "Man, wasn't we stupid?" We said, "Yeah, man, we sold a lot of records." Yeah, I mean, I sang One Woman. He sang One Woman. I sang I Stand Accused. He sang, I Stand Accused.
Al Green Tells Apple Music About “Old Time Lovin’”…
That's something I wanted to write for Willie Mitchell and I wrote it for myself to see, what are you actually doing? Are you actually doing something brand new? Or are you doing something that sample Ray Charles, Bobby Bland, Lou Rawls or somebody or Sly and the Family Stone. I thought the whole thing should really be, you can't dice them up so much to you don't know where you are, so you just have to put them all together and call it Old Time Lovin' because yeah, she know what that means, she don't ... Ask her. Ask her, she know what it means. And then, I started getting serious about to ask her, she know what it means. That’s what I like, man. Because I mean, you can't be nice all the time. Look, you know what it means. I don't know what it means. Yeah, I'm talking about you. Yeah. Yeah.
Al Green Tells Apple Music About "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”...
I did a lot of covers all my life, so it wasn't that bad. I thought it was a good song. And Willie wanted to sing it, so he cut it and by the time we got back from off the tour, he wanted me to come down the studio and sing it. It sounds pretty good.
Al Green Tells Apple Music About the Legacy of Let's Stay Together, 50 Years On...
Oh, it's a knocked out piece of work to me. I didn't know that, number one, that people was going to like it. I didn't know that it was going to do what it did. And Willie Mitchell told me, "Don't strive for number one all the time because, see, after you get to number one, there's only one direction you can go, see? So maybe 26, 27, 28 and hang around that area there, you know what I mean? And you'll sell a lot of records around there."
You know, if it's not current, it stays in your heart. It's like in the background. No matter what I sing or stuff, I still hear it. Yeah, it's in my heart, but it's in the background. I can feel, hear the melody of it.
